


he was the best damn man that i ever seen

by wigglyink



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling, Fluff, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Song: Halo (Beyoncé), There's A Tag For That, Timeline What Timeline, adam went on kerberos mission and is still alive, allure and romelle end up being queens and rulling new altea, ignoring canon is my hobby, klance, no beta in this house we die like men, so vld is ending, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-17 20:31:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16981299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wigglyink/pseuds/wigglyink
Summary: Keith came back.He missed him for so long it felt like a dream to see him again.





	he was the best damn man that i ever seen

Keith came back

 

Just these three words are occupying his mind as Lance swings his recently acquired sword at another training bot. It’s so bizarre. He was sure Keith just run away and will never come back, no matter what.

 

He missed him for so long it felt like a dream to see him again. He doesn’t want to admit how alone he was in a ship full of people.

 

Allura was always busy doing amazing magic stuff or piloting the Castle. Hunk and Pidge were always together doing nerdy things and having conversations about new lien tech and more often than not it seemed to him like he was a third wheel. Shiro wanted to spend with Adam as much time alone as he could, catching up on lost days (and nights) after he found him again. They were so sweet together, Lance didn’t want to disturb them.

 

He tried helping Coran as much as he could, but the man was retelling the same stories over and over, so Lance eventually got bored. He tried not to show it, but the man wasn’t stupid. Lance couldn’t stand a blink of guilt in Coran’s eyes every time he started talking.

 

Keith never answered any of his calls. It didn’t matter if he called by a fancy alien communicator or by a scream in a dead silence of lonely nights. It was a dead end.

 

He tries to take on two sparring bots at the same time, but the exhaustion isn’t helping him. His movements are slower, more sluggish. Lack of proper sleep is making his mind weary and eyes heavy. He thinks he could go to bed now, he is done letting off steam. He now gets why Keith always spent so much time on a training deck. It is gloriously mind-numbing and putting a deafening cloche on unwanted thoughts. His mind is quiet enough now.

 

But the end of this level is so close he can almost touch it.

 

He puts the last bit of energy left into a single swing attempting to damage both bots in their weak spot between head and a torso at the same time. He defeats the first one, but the second bot takes a step back and blocks his sword. Lance huffs and tries to stab it from the front.

 

It probably isn’t his greatest idea, because he ends up on a floor with a holographic sword to his throat shortly after and a set of new bruises on his back and arms.

 

“End training sequence” he says resigned. Score board flashes before his eyes, but he doesn’t look at it. Not caring about beating records or trying to be better than Keith was a nice change. A one-sided rivalry isn’t as fun as he thought in the Garrison. He’d rather be liked than completely ignored by Keith.

 

He drops his bayard and relaxes his muscles. He’s so tired he honestly considers sleeping on the floor. As strange as it might sound, it’s surprisingly comfortable. He knows Veronica and Rachel would make fun of him for that, but they’re not here. He can feel his heart clench at the thought of his family. He doesn’t know if they’re okay, if Galra reached Earth or not.

 

He shuts those thoughts away in a special cabinet in his mind. Worrying about them when he can’t do anything won’t help anybody. Especially all those aliens he and the rest of the team are supposed to be fighting for to end a cruel reign of the Galra empire.

 

Seeing how much he can help them makes it all worth it. Reunited families, rebuilding civilizations. Smiles, cries of joy and relief from people finding their close ones made it.

 

It’s worth fighting for. That’s why he stuck around for so long.

 

Just a quick nap never hurt anybody.

 

Suddenly, before he closes his eyes, he hears footsteps. They’re quiet, but fall sturdy on the ground. He recognizes them immediately, he knows sound of everyone’s footsteps. It’s a habit he picked up growing up with such a big family. Even here, he involuntarily always keeps an ear out. Only one person on this ship tries to be stealth all the damn time.

 

“Are you okay?” Keith asks, standing above him with a hint of worry to his voice. If Lance didn’t listen to every word he says, he would never pick up on it. It’s weird hearing it. Maybe he’s turning on his Leader Persona or tries to imitate Shiro, attempting to be better at showing that he cares about every single teammate.

 

Speaking of which, Shiro’s been neglecting his very dad-like habits until Adam insisted on getting him a new arm and throwing away the old one. His new arm was so much cooler and the man could turn on and off a soft blue light. With his mind. Lance thinks it’s the coolest thing ever.

 

Keith puts a hand on his hip. Lance looks at him and tries to analyze his posture. He’s supporting his body on the right leg, which he slightly put forward. He has a frown on his pace, but doesn’t look disappointed in Lance. More like concerned mixed with disapproving. He also looks tired, but Cuban can’t tell what he’s thinking about.

 

He usually knew when Keith was about to rush into following his instincts, when he was about to laugh or pull out his bayard. He got so good at reading the other boy, he was like an open book to him, so not knowing made him uneasy.

 

“Yeah I’m great, just taking a nap.” he lifts a corner of his lips. Keith snickers and reaches out a hand for Lance to take. The boy gladly accepts it and stands up.

 

“Thanks” he says under his breath as sleepless nights are catching up on him like a rushing train, making him almost fall down. “Whoa, Lance.” Keith catches him before he meets the cold floor. Lance gives him a small smile. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he hears. He’s too out of it to realize how close him and Keith are. He doesn’t respond, not wanting his voice to give away emotions he holds for the boy that he was hiding for so long. It’s counterproductive, Keith starts to get even more worried than he already was.

 

“Wanna eat cereal?” He blurts out, looking away. Keith stares at him in pure confusion written on his face. “Wha-? I guess?” he answers and helps Lance stand upright. It takes him a lot of effort not to fall over once again, but he feels better standing on his own. He shots Keith a proud smirk. The boy rolls his eyes and gives him a shy smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. Something isn’t quite right.

 

Lance was always good at reading people. He was more than good, he was a genius. His emotional intelligence was one of few things he was once proud of, but recently he realized it was useless when you were fighting a war with an alien race and looking Lady Death in her eyes more frequently than a normal person.

 

Diplomacy isn’t for him, he doesn’t have enough patience for it. It’s an area which he prefers to leave to professionals like Allura. She was taught its art from the very beginning, preparing her to one day become a queen. Rightfully so, she is amazing at getting new planets to join a Voltron Coalition and fight a war, making allies and gaining support.

 

Lance lets his tired gaze travel on Keith’s face, along his sharp jaw and soft hair and weird pretty purple eyes and- okay that is a dangerous train of thoughts especially when the guy you’re thinking about is standing right next to you and you had a crush on him since forever.

 

Lance mentally scolds himself and turns towards an exit from the training deck. Keith is right by his side, still looking worried and possibly keeping very close in case of another “my teammate is about to kiss the floor” emergency.

 

“I saw your score. You’re doing great with the sword stuff.” he tries to start a conversation. Lance looks at him and sees just pure amusement, without a hint of mockery. His face lights up in mere seconds as it hits him it was a compliment. It feels so stupidly great it’s ridiculous, but he can’t stop a wide smile. “Thanks man.” Lance says in a soft voice, so filled with emotion Keith turns his head to look at him.

 

Keith returns the smile, but starts thinking about what might have possibly happened when he was gone. Why wasn’t Lance bickering with him like he used to? He liked it. They both liked it.

 

Keith leads them to the kitchen, where they grab a box of something similar to Earth cereal they bought a planet they’ve been on. They stacked up so much of it it took a whole storage room to keep it in. Coran didn’t understand it and neither did Allura, but they were more than happy thprovide Paladins with something they enjoyed so much.

 

“It’s too late to bother Kaltenecker, she needs her beauty sleep.” mumbles Lance, still coherent enough to be understood by a miracle or thanks to some higher power. He opens up one of the cabinets and grabs a bowl. He pours dry cereal in and grabs it with one hand.

 

He grabs Keith by his shirt and hauls him to the lounge. The boy doesn’t object, he just scrunches his eyebrows and looks like he’s trying very hard to think about something. He doesn’t say anything when a very sleepy Lance drags him to the nearest couch and sits him down.

Keith pulls knees close to his chest to get his feet off the floor. Lance plumps next to him and tilts his head to get a better view of his friend.

 

“Tell me about all cool missions you’ve been on.” he begs, reaching for cereal and stuffing a handful of them into his mouth. Keith sighs. “There weren’t any cool ones. Mostly just getting intel and stealth missions.” he admits without any problems. “They were all repetitive and boring to be honest. Same stuff, over and over.”

 

“Oh.” Lance looks away.

 

“Oh?”

 

“I imagined something more cool. Like, y’know, explosions. ‘n stuff.” he tries to put a flake of cereal on his nose and fails miserably.

 

“I wish.” Keith laughs. “What happened on the team when I was gone?” he asks.

He sees like Lance freezes for a second and starts babbling. “Uh, a lot of aliens joined the Coalition. I don’t know exactly how many but a lot. Shiro got the love of his life back and they are so sweet and cheesy together I’m pretty sure the team has solid cavities at this point. Coran got drugged and tried to be hip with the kids. He’s okay now though, don’t worry about that. We did a lot of shows, some of them were cool. I signed some autographs for spaghetti people and got a few selfies with them. I can show you if you want.”

 

“I would like that.” Keith says. Lance starts searching for his phone-like device in this pajamas and growls because he can’t find it. “You can show me in the morning.” Keith suggests and reaches for the cereal bowl on Lance’s lap.

 

“Yeah, but…. Will you be here to see it?” Lance focuses on his knees.

 

Keith’s hand freezes halfway to his mouth. He puts it down. “Of course I will be here to see it. I’m not leaving for now.” he protests.

 

Lance doesn’t look up.

 

“Lance…. Are you okay?” Keith puts a free hand on Lance’s shoulder. The boy hunches his shoulders. “I’m- I’m fine, don’t worry about that.” he says with a shaky whisper and hides his face in his hands.

 

To say that Keith has no clue what to do is an understatement. From the second Lance’s voice starts trembling he goes into panic mode. Almost dying every day he can take, but sad Lance? That’s a totally different story.

 

“You left. I wasn’t sure when or if you would come back.”

 

Keith with a large dose of uncertainty starts rubbing circles on his back. He realizes how tense Lance’s muscles are under his pajama shirt.

 

He starts humming a familiar tune he can’t place. It’s a distant memory, from before he met Shiro. Before he got into Garrison and everything was simpler. A brief thought whispers it was a lullaby his mother sung to him before she left. Or it was his father? He can’t remember. It’s a dozen of musical notes he associates with comfort and warmth and he tries to transfer those feelings to Lance.

 

He changes the way his hands run against his back. From circles to letters to stroking invisible lines down his spine.

 

He doesn’t think about repetitive movements, he focuses on Lance. On his muscles, his hair, his palms. On Lance, who slowly starts to relax to his touch.

 

They both don’t know when, but somehow they end up with Lance’s head on Keith’s thighs and none of them seem to mind. A cereal bowl is long forgotten, as Keith’s hands are busy playing with other boy’s hair. It’s ridiculously soft, it must me the result of all the products he’s been using.

 

“I know it sounds stupid but it was lonely without you” Lance starts and Keith stops humming.

 

“It’s not stupid. I missed you too.” Keith admits with ease. He came a long way from a socially awkward emo teenager who preferred to punch things (and people) instead of confronting his emotions. It was in a large part, thanks to Lance. He always admired how open and up front the other boy is. How he navigates feelings and social situations with ease, always trying to find the best solution for everybody.

 

“With the Blades, it was… quiet. Boring. Repetitive. Alone. I missed my right hand man.” he says, before he can chicken out and keep those thoughts to himself. He feels Lance stiffen on his lap.

 

He looks at him and gives him a shy smile.

 

“When I was away, I realized that I made a wrong decision. Instead of making the team stronger, I only weakened it’s heart. And it’s you, Lance. You’re the heart of Voltron. The universe needs you. I need you.”

 

He’s confident. He planned to say it for so long. Every day when he woke up to masked Blades, every day spent without any means of communicating with his team.

 

Every day without Lance.

 

It was bad, to say the least. Now, he feels Lance’s tears on his pants and smells salt in the air. His senses were always heightened, but fore some time even more than ever. He looks at Lance, who covered his face with his palms again.

 

“Thanks man.” he says. His voice is full of so many emotions it makes his head spin. He knows he needed to hear that, he just never expected he would actually got to.

 

Keith touches Lance’s head and continues where he left off, playing with his soft curls. It takes a few minutes before the boy starts to talk again.

 

“I missed you so much. You’re a better leader than you think you are. Without you, I- I felt like I wasn’t needed. Everybody had different matters to attend to, was always busy or leaving me out. I don’t blame them, we’re in the middle of a war. It still sucked though. With you it sucks a lot less.”

 

Lance lifts his hands, revealing his tired, but very shiny from tears eyes. Now it’s a perfect opportunity for Keith to see him without his mask on.

 

His skin looks bad. He hasn’t been taking care of it and it’s not the same warm, rich brown tone it was when they left the Earth. He has shadows and bags under his eyes that would fit a whole space lion inside. He has a lot more bruises than Keith remembers, all scattered in places they wouldn’t occur in normal conditions. His hair is a mess, curls aren’t defined and ends are split.

 

Keith smiles at him. It’s senceire, kind, has some emotional baggage but it’s true.

 

And Lance returns it.

 

They look at each other in peace. It feels for both of them like the tome has stopped, like there is nothing except them. Hold on eyed contact doesn’t seem forced. A comfortable silence washes over them like a sea without a breeze, waves so delicate they’re hard to be seen.

 

Until an alarm sound interrupts their intimacy.

 

They frantically get up, tranquility forgotten as they rush to get to the bridge as soon as possible. A rush of adrenaline overtakes them as they race to the lions. It’s become too much of a routine for the whole team. They know every time they hear that forsaken sound could be their last. It’s a scary thing to think about and it’s a reason they don’t think about it. They have the way to the hangars engraved in their brains.

 

They get to the bridge and see Allura who just got there. She gives them a sharp nod and jumps to be transported into Blue. Keith goes for Black without second thoughts, as does Lance with Red. They put on armor and welcome personalized interiors of their respective giant robots.

 

Lance looks at a picture of the whole team and a single creep shot he got of Keith in a corner of his eye. He turns on the comm and hears others getting ready.

 

“What’s the situation, Allura.” Keith asks, knowing the Princess is always the first to know because of her deep connection to the Castle.

 

“Five Galra cargo ships are approaching. The scanners show they are carrying weapons for the Empire. No prisoners, very few living forms on board.” she says in a confident voice.

 

Keith takes in the information. Tey have to cut the delivery short.

 

“Lance, what’s your call?” he asks. Keith thinks they should attack now, but simultaneously knows he needs a second opinion.

 

“We should check where the ships are delivering to. I think we should get in, grab data, get out and blow them up. In this order.” Lance says, this time no trace of overwhelming exhaustion thanks to adrenaline keeping him functioning and aware.

 

“Good idea, it might be useful. Lance, you go with me. Allura, you stay as a backup. Tell others to do the same when they got here. We’re going in. Lance, cloak.” Keith orders them. He got a lot more better since the beginning. His time with the blades might have helped, seeing other styles of leadership that Shiro’s.

 

The boys turn on the masking cloak on their Lions and head for the Galra ships. They’re not far away, but enough for the journey to take more than a few minutes. So Lance gets bored from not being shot at.

 

“Hey Keith. Buddy. My man.” he starts. Keith can almost see him wiggling his eyebrows.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Have you ever listened to Beyoncé when you were living under the rock?” Keith laughs.

 

“Dude, who do you take me for? An uncultured swine?”

 

“Remember those walls I built?

Well, baby, they’re tumbling down”

 

Keith thinks he’s falling in love with Lance’s voice. And his music taste. He decides to join in.

 

“And they didn’t even put up a fight

They didn’t even make a sound”

 

Lance doesn’t stop, he continues and Keith can hear a smile in his voice.

 

“I found a way to let you win

But I never really had a doubt”

 

 

Keith is full on smiling now. Oh goddess, if only his brother saw him now. He wouldn’t hear the end of teasing for the next decade.

 

“Standing in the light of your halo

I got my angel now”

 

“Why are you two singing Beyoncé?” Hunk turns on the comm and interrupts them, very confused and mildly concerned. Lance and Keith start laughing. Allura doesn’t join in, she doesn’t get Earth culture and has no idea what is going on.

 

Pidge comes online and utters a quick “It’s too early for this.”

 

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

 

Their mission goes smooth. They manage not to alarm any Galra, and when they get what they want hey blow up the ships to destroy weapons. Keith knows it was mostly thanks to Lance. He is about 90% of Keith’s impulse control. He was right, they are a good team. He still won’t forgive him for forgetting their Bonding Moment though.

 

They complement each other pretty well.

 

They skip the briefing and go to the lounge to cool off. It was an easy mission, they’re not dead nor injured so they think it was quite a success. Keith isn’t even sure if Shiro took an active part from the ship or if he just went back to sleep after checking up on them.

 

Lance and Keith somehow end up on the same couch having an adrenaline crash and sleep deprivation catch up on them as they lay down. They cuddle for warmth, because toxic masculinity is for the weak. It’s not anyone’s place to say that the Castle isn’t cold. Especially not Shiro’s, who got up and walked past them. Not without snapping a photo, of course. For the sake of the team.

 

And maybe blackmail.

 

“You gonna forget this bonding moment too?” Keith whispers, his breath dancing on Lance’s brown skin.

 

“I never forgot.” he says, not moving an inch. They stay with their limbs intertwined. Chest to chest, stealing each other’s breaths. Closer than needed, but they don’t care as long as they’re together. They let exhaustion wash over them, leaving them in a delicate embrace of much needed sleep.

 

Shiro and Adam come to check up on them. They see two sleeping boys and decide to leave them alone. There’s a small smile playing on Takashi’s face, that Adam catches with a corner of his mouth.

 

“I’m proud of him, you know. It’s crazy to see how far he came.” He whispers to Adam as they leave the room.

 

“He’s just like a smaller version of you. Just without white hair and still prefers to punch people.” they both laugh. It feels secure. Their thoughts don’t wander to the war they’re fighting, not even to the problems they will have to face when a Castle clock announces it’s morning. They miss waking up next to each other with a sunrise outside the window.

 

Now they can see stars, but they’re different from the ones they got used to. They change every time when they travel, and that makes learning new constellations impossible.

 

Stargazing was one of their favorite things to do, when a crisp air of the dessert became cold when sun hid under the horizon and lights were turned off. Stars were so easy to see, so they snuck out almost every night to look at them. They never got caught, Garrison security was always useless.

 

Kinda explains how three teenagers managed to sneak out under complete lock down and flew on a giant blue mechanical lion into space. Also how a single teenager snuck into a locked and secured area containing a random person who flew into space a while back and beat up quite a lot of people on his way.

 

Yeah, the Garrison sucked in more ways than one. But that’s where he met the love of his life and a whimsy kid he kinda adopted as a brother. He isn’t going to complain about that.

 

Adam puts his arm around him when they sit down on their bed. Takashi tilts his head to lay on him. They also came a long way from the start.

 

“They remind me of us.” Shiro says. Adam hums.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Lance is so similar to you. He’s just so open and bright. Keith got a lot from me.”

 

“Does he even know I was the person to always tell you _Patience yields focus?”_

 

They laugh.

 

“When do you think they will start finally dating, love?” Adam asks.

 

“I’m giving them three months.”

 

“Are you kidding me? They’re pure disasters! I’m betting on six.”

 

“What are we betting for?” Shiro looks up at his love.

 

“Looser has to throw a bouquet at our wedding.” Adam suggests and Shiro grunts.

 

“I absolutely hate it. I’m in.” he smirks. Adam chuckles and plants a small kiss on

his brow.

 

They stay this way until the breakfast is ready.

 

 

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

 

It’s safe to say their wedding is beautiful. Hundreads of thousands of flowers hang in the air thanks to magic. They aren’t from Earth, but were a gift to Shiro and Adam from the grateful universe.

Every alien race gave different flowers.

 

Decorations are floating above a huge field full of humans and aliens alike. Five Lions are sitting and making a makeshift border of the party. Music is playing, Lance and Keith choose the playlist after literal hours of over who would have control over it.

 

Adam looks at Shiro and can’t believe he’s married to him. Not so long ago they were fighting a war. While there was still a lot to do, they could finally take a step back.

 

Adam can feel love for the man swirling in his stomach. It’s a different feeling than when they started dating, but it’s way better. Stronger, more durable. Able to widthstand anything.

 

“What are you thinking about, dear?” Shiro asks him when he notices Adam fell silent.

 

“How far we came.” He answers, looking at his wedding ring and then at Takashi. The light is shining in his eyes at he smiles at him, full of joy.

 

They look each other in the eyes, when Keith climbs on a table and asks everybody for attention.

 

“Hey, listen up! I’m Shiro’s best men so I gotta do a speech, I guess. ” he smiled at his boyfirend who cheered loudly.

 

“Anyways. Shiro is my brother. He was a person who raised me when my parent’s couldn’t and I will be forever grateful for that. What I will not be grateful, are months of him pining over a crush he had on a certain Garrison student named Adam. He didn’t get his disaster gay title in my eyes for nothing. It was excrutiating, seeing him panic every goddamn time he was together with his crush in one room. Fear not, I have some pictures!”

 

Keith turns on a gigant holographic screen with a remote. Photos of Shiro being akward around Adam only Keith seen before catch the attention of the guests.

 

Slide after slide, smile on Adam’s face grows.

 

“It’s wonderful.” he whispers and Shiro hids his face in his palms. Nobody was supposed to see those. Ever.

 

“But you know what? When they got together they got even worse. The amount of bad pick up lines and weird pet names was astonishing. I think they were even worse than me and Lance!”

 

Guests laugh, and Shiro lift his head. There’s a photo of them cuddling on a roof, watching stars together. He prefers not to know how his brother got this photo.

 

“But not only that was astonishing. I think it’s important how their relationship survived a literal intergalactic war and they stayed close. Made up after every fight, loss of limbs, injury, death.”

 

Keith looks right at them.

 

“Welcome to the family, Adam. Officially, now.” he gives them a bright smile. Audience claps. Shiro swears something just fell into his eye. Adam hands him a tissue, without a word.

 

Guests come back to talking, dancing and eating.

 

Shiro glances at Keith and Lance talking. They look so in love it warms his heart. They deserve it. Everybody deserves a rest.

**Author's Note:**

> hello. this is my first published fanfiction. it's also my goodbye to vld fandom - no matter how s8 ends, i will still miss the characters. 
> 
> it's an end of the chapter, and a beginning of a new one


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